Sep 19, 2012 - Day 66 - the Irish Loop

Today we toured the Irish Loop. This is a drive around the Avalon Peninsula of about 200 km through many villages. We finally found Marie's fog near the far end of the loop near Trepassy. We watched the fog roll in from the ocean while had lunch at a lovely little restaurant and B&B. The fog never interferred with our drive and we continued around the loop. Very many picturesque villages and harbors. We finished the evening with supper and a visit with Marie to plan our next day.

Sep 18, 2012 - Day 65 - St John's, NL

This morning was spent doing laundry, an annoying but necessary time killer. After lunch we did a self-guided walking tour of downtown St John's. We got our exercise and saw some lovely buildings. We ran into Dorin & Jim downtown and found out that they were planning to go to Quidi Vidi Brewery, the same as us. Garry, Mel and Jim & Dorin did the brewery tour while Wendy and I did a walking tour of Quidi Vidi Village. After the tour, we invited Marie, Dorin and Jim back to the RV for BBQ supper. Mel BBQ'd terrific steaks and we enoyed a very...

Sep 17, 2012 - Day 64 - Arnold's Cove to St John's, NL

The rain from Arnold's Cove ended by morning and we had a pleasant drive the last couple of hours into St. John's to Pippy Park. This is a large park in central St John's similar to Central Park in New York. It covers a lot of area and includes a campground. We called Marie and she came out to meet us. We all got into Marie's car for our first tour around. We went first to Cape Spears, the furthest point east in Canada and walked up to near the lighthouse there. It includes former fort guarding the bay outside St John's Harbor. We continued...

Aug 31, 2012 - St. John's the end

Day Seventy Two – Aug 31 St. John’s 15k At 8am the 2012 edition of the Tour du Canada assembled outside of the Battery Hotel. We wanted to get this over with. Ride up the hill or ride down to the water's edge. What will it be? Part of the group rode up to the Signal Hill monument while the balance went down to the water to dip wheels into the Atlantic Ocean. The downhillers then rode to the top of Signal Hill. Everyone was at the top now. Photos of everything and everyone were on order. When all the riders were at the top and had...

Aug 30, 2012 - St. John's

Day Seventy One – Aug 30 St. John’s 000k One of the questions I asked myself when I first looked at doing the Tour du Canada was why they didn’t do more of Newfoundland. Well here I was on the Tour and we were doing the full breadth of Newfoundland; from the seat of a bus. The ferry did get in to Channel-Port-Of-Basques at 7am. There was a chartered bus scheduled for 8am and shortly before that time we were boarding the bus. At 8am we were heading for St. John’s. The bus stopped three times on its trip across NFLD. It got to the Battery...

Aug 19, 2012 - St. Johns sightseeing #2

Just a note about the St. John's vs. Saint John confusion. You may notice that LATELY, I have been spelling the capital of Newfoundland the first way St. John's which is proper. Before I was calling it St. John or St. Johns, but it is ST. JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND. The OTHER one is Saint John, New Brunswick, notice how I spelled it out and didn't put an S on the end of it. Only people up here probably know the difference, but now you know, so if you see it in print you will know which one is which. Another word about this Mile 0 thing. This next...

Aug 19, 2012 - St. John's, Newfoundland Sightseeing, #1

We stayed at the Mount Pearl Hotel...in Mt. Pearl, which is a suburb of St. John's. It was convenient to the TCH coming into the city, cheaper than downtown, and we had no parking or traffic problems. They have a restaurant, but it's only open for breakfast (and lunch), so we walked to the Red Rocks Bar and Grill, where I got an Alberta Beef steak. Haven't had one of those since...well...we were in Alberta, and it's good beef. The hotel has a bar down the hall that's open until who knows how late, but has no food either, just people doing...

Aug 18, 2012 - Gander to St. Johns, NF

I’m going to get out of order here. We’ve had a frustrating couple of days and now that we’ve dealt with the problems, I can talk about it. I heard on the radio while in Gander that one of the ferries had a problem and would be out of service the coming week (Marine Atlantic has 3), but there should be no real inconvenience. Yeah right! When we got to St. Johns on Saturday and called to book our voyage for Tuesday (they only run Sat., Tues, Thurs. on this end, every day from Port aux Basque), they said there will be no ferry on Tuesday,...

Jul 20, 2012 - Notre Dame Provincial Park, NL to St. John’s, NL

Today is Lee’s birthday and we‘ll travel to Saint John’s. We woke up and since it had been late last night we let Heather and the children sleep while we pulled out. In Gander, everyone was awake so we stopped at where you can find a Tim Horton around every corner. Some good hot tea hit the spot. Gander is where in December 1985 the 101st Airborne went down losing every life. Gander is called the Crossroads of the World. Before there was even a town, they put an airport there. We still haven't seen a moose really clearly. Newfoundland is a...

Jul 3, 2012 - Newfoundland – Week One

On Tuesday, June 26 we were up early as the sun shone brightly; a good driving day across Newfoundland. Gerald, our B&B host, was in the kitchen preparing our breakfast. By 7AM the car was packed and we were ready to hit the road and head for Trinity on the east coast. Most of our drive was on the Trans-Canada Highway (TCH) aka Hwy. 1. I erred somewhat in my last report when I said “no Interstate system here.” Actually, the TCH was quite adequate with a 100Km (62mph) speed limit. With relatively light traffic and numerous sections of...

Sep 2, 2011 - Whitbourne to Saint John’s

September 2 - Final day – Whitbourne to Saint John’s K’s 99.04 Time 4h 40m Average speed: 21.24k/H T to d 7717 Total tour k’s with the Victoria mile zero included 8002 We left Whitbourne early after a light cold cereal breakfast as we continued to worry about the chain on Terri’s bike. We also had to make a stop at a TransCanada highway (TCH) service station for water as the water at the arena did not look fit to drink, a nice orange color with an off odor smell. The morning was very cool with a fairly heavy fog. This is not really a...

Aug 29, 2011 - St. John's Newfoundland, Canada

We toured the peninsula that separates Conception Bay from Trinity Bay. We left at 10 am and returned at 7 pm, a long but wonderful day. We drove through Avondale, had a late lunch in Bay Roberts at Lynda's were we had liver, onions and bacon, just like mother fixed. It was delicious. Our Friends Kay & Marlin said we had to see Brigus, we were not disappointed, the town is situated on a beautiful harbour, the homes are colorful and there is a tunnel carved out of rock. The tunnel was built especially for Capt. Bob Bartlett, the arctic...